ROAD TO THE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT TEAM -- Benjamin competed as a Level 7 during the 2018-19 Season, during which time he worked hard to both gain new skills and begin to acquire the foundational skills and muscle memory he hadn't had time to develop during his quick rise in the sport. Benjamin travelled a good deal with the Liberty team in 2019, competing with “the big boys” in Chicago, Texas, Las Vegas, and Southern California. The 2018-19 Season proved to be crucially important to Benjamin in helping him begin to gain seasoning as a gymnast, and begin improving his ability to perform more consistently and confidently. Benjamin performed well at NorCal State Championships (3rd Place All Around in his age group) in March 2019, and then placed 8th All Around at Regionals. Benjamin then began training for the 2019-20 Season, and for the 2019 Future Stars Program, with a renewed energy and dedication. In November 2019, Benjamin once again got to participate in the National Future Stars Testing (11 year old age group) in the Olympic Training Center (the "OTC") where he caught a few cherished glimpses of his hero, Sam Mikulak. During this event, his second visit to the OTC for National Future Stars Testing, Benjamin was proud to place 11th All-Around, and to be named to the National Development Team.

INTERRUPTED CLIMB -- Still working with Coach Chris Nagy at Liberty Gymnastics, Benjamin (then age 11) went on to compete as a Level 8 (Elite) during the 2019-20 Season, slowly building over the season until he put in a very strong performance at the 2020 Peter Vidmar Invitational in Santa Monica, CA. There, Benjamin took first place on floor, second place on four other events, and took second place All-Around with a score of 71.9. Unfortunately, Benjamin’s season (along with everyone else’s in CA) ended in early March 2020 (just before the NorCal State Championships), when the State of California implemented the Covid Shutdown.

THE LOST SEASONS AND THE LONG ROAD BACK -- With the implementation of the Covid Shutdown in California, California Optional gymnasts lost their entire 2020 Championship Season. Struggling to keep in shape (and against the inevitable loss of momentum), Benjamin and his teammates trained daily over Zoom for several months until they were finally able to resume training (with heavy restrictions) back in the gym during the Summer of 2020. Unfortunately, Benjamin missed out on his final year of eligibility for Future Stars Testing (age 12 group) when the 2020 Future Stars program was cancelled due to Covid-related concerns. Benjamin (age 12) was able to compete in one regular season meet (in Georgia) and one in-house meet during the 2020-21 Season before submitting a video recorded collection of routines for the NorCal State meet, but as a whole, the 2020-21 Season never felt real to Benjamin. Benjamin continually struggled during that time period to regain the ground he had lost in the sport due to Covid, and the video-based competition paradigm in California left much to be desired. Then, the day after filming his video submissions for the NorCal State Championships (which were ultimately cancelled) in March 2021, Benjamin began feeling rapidly increasingly excruciating pain in his left forearm. Diagnosed with a “stress reaction” in his ulna, Benjamin was advised that the issue would likely resolve with a couple weeks of rest, and in time for him to participate at Regionals and Nationals. The doctors were wrong, and Benjamin never recovered sufficiently to compete at either Regionals or Nationals in 2021. Inexplicably, in August 2021 (nearly 5 months later), Benjamin was **still** struggling to figure out if his arm had healed enough to get back into the gym. Then, the worse case scenario hit. In August 2021, right after Benjamin and his family moved to the State of Idaho, Benjamin's scheduled return to the gym to test the recovery of his forearm was derailed when he was laid low with a serious case of Covid-19 that damaged his immune and energy generation systems, and compromised the balance center in his brain so seriously that he found himself unable to walk across a room without feeling sick, exhausted, dizzy and/or nauseous.

Benjamin’s 2021-22 Season never happened. Instead, Benjamin suffered with his debilitating effects of Long-Haul Covid (weakness, dizziness, nausea, and susceptibility to illness) that kept him out of the gym for another 7 months until he recovered his health sufficiently (using a multitude of medicinal and supplement protocols, and various physical and brain therapy regimens) to begin to attempt a come-back. By this point in May 2022, Benjamin had lost significant strength, endurance, and skills, and his ability to ever compete again was in serious question. Knowing the details of Benjamin's situation, and that Benjamin might never be able to compete again, Cort Bramwell of Danik Gymnastics agreed to bring Benjamin into the Danik Family and to do what he could to help Benjamin rehabilitate himself. From May through October 2022, Benjamin struggled to get to the gym, regularly missing hours and/or days of training due to weakness, dizziness, and/or sickness. Coach Cort did what he could to help Benjamin improve in the gym and rehab his forearm (when Benjamin was there), and Benjamin and his medical team worked hard outside the gym toward stabilizing Benjamin's system well enough to enable him to get back to a full training schedule. The situation was so challenging during this time for Benjamin that his teammates began celebrating his accomplishment every time Benjamin was able to attend a full week of practice. Thankfully, near the end of November 2022, Benjamin’s immune system's slow recovery suddenly took a leap forward that was also super-charged by a new set of protocols devised by his medical team, and Benjamin was able to get back in the gym (and stay there) full time with the rest of his team. As a result, beginning in December 2022, Benjamin’s attendance at gym spiked to 100%. By late December 2022 the decision was made to let Benjamin compete during the 2022-23 JO Season as a Level 9 - just to see what he was capable of, and to set a new baseline for his recovery.

JOYFUL SURPRISES -- Overjoyed and grateful to be training and competing regularly again, Benjamin approached each meet during the 2022-23 Season with intensity, but also calm and humility. Benjamin quickly discovered that over the course of his long struggle to get back to competing, that with the help of Coach Cort he had improved upon the basics, and he had come back to the activity of competing with a new consistency and confidence that served him well. After performing reasonably well during his first two meets of the season, in a startling upset Benjamin was named the All-Around Champion in his age group at the 2023 Azarian Team Cup in Southern California, and then again at the 2023 Yellowstone Challenge. He went on to become the Level 9 Idaho State Champion (on four events and in the all-around) in his age group in March 2023, and to place 2nd in his Level 9 age group at Regionals in Wasilla, Alaska. Finally, at the end of April, 2023, Benjamin became the Level 9 All-Around Champion in his age group at the Western National Championships in Galveston Texas, where he also placed 1st on Vault, 2nd on Floor, and 3rd on both Rings and Pommel Horse.

WHAT’S NEXT -- Benjamin is thrilled to be competing again, but still remains unsatisfied with his performances and scores. He is now focused on preparing for the 2023-24 Season, during which he will try to qualify as a Level 10 (Elite). He is hard at work again regaining lost skills, gaining new ones, increasing his start values, learning the tech sequences, and continuing to improve his strength, stamina, and physical health as he simultaneously works to finally get free of (rather than just work around) his Long-Haul Covid. Most importantly, though, Benjamin is thoroughly enjoying the close brotherhood he has found with his amazing new teammates at Danik Gymnastics, and finally being back on the road toward his Olympic dreams.